Greening the factory


Howtomake a big difference


From water to lighting, there are huge opportunities for industry to become more efficient, cut costs and reduce energy consumption and emissions. Mike Scott offers some timely advice for businesses


that is over 25 years old, he points out, adding that adoption of energy efficient lighting could save


London 1.4M tonnes of CO2 a year. Carrying out an energy audit in lighting will ensure that your lighting meets the standards of the EU’s Eco-design requirements for Energy-


related Products. It will also reduce CO2 emis- sions, cut maintenance costs and reduce thermal load and the need for air conditioning. Impressive savings can also be realised by introducing technological fixes such as variable speed drives (VSD), which can be applied to industrial motors. Motors consume about two- thirds of industrial energy use and therefore more than a fifth of total UK consumption, costing about £5BN a year to run. Over a 20-year life span, a 75kW motor will cost more than £1M to run and it will take less than a month for it to con- sume its purchase price in energy costs. Fitting a VSD reduces energy consumption and therefore cuts your power bill – the payback from investing in VSDs is about three to six months, says Barker. Yet Gambica, the trade organisation for instru- mentation, control, automation and laboratory technology in the UK, estimates that no more than 10% of motors in the UK are fitted with VSD. If 50% were fitted with the technology, it


would save 20M tonnes of CO2 a year. The quality of power supplies is under pressure from factors ranging from lightning strikes to neighbourhood repairs and from hardware rang- ing from office equipment to generators. Power quality problems can cause excess heat, increased energy consumption, shorter component life and


production downtime. Dealing with power qual- ity issues can cut direct energy costs, improve sys- tem reliability and reduce lost productivity caused by systems failure, while providing a pay- back of one to two years. Voltage optimisation is one aspect of boosting power quality that is widely applicable and can offer energy savings in the range of 10%-20%. Voltage variations across the country can cause appliances to use more energy than necessary. “A 230V linear appliance used on a 240V supply will take 4.3% more current and will consume almost 9% more energy,” says the Institute of Electrical Engineers, and “it will only achieve 55% of its rated life.”


Heating and cooling is another area that is ripe with possible energy savings, with technology such as combined heat and power (CHP) plants offering consid- erable efficiency sav- ings. CHP produces three times more heat


Siemens encourages customers to take a holistic, systematic approach to improving efficiency. Experience reveals that the systematic approach provides four times more savings than an ‘ad hoc’ approach, Barker explains.


But such an approach requires expert energy consultants – and because they are looking at business processes, they also need to understand the particular sector in which a company is oper- ating and how it works. “You can’t send an expert in the food and beverage sector to a steelworks because they work in different ways,” Barker says. “You have to have the right expert with spe- cific experience of the industry you are dealing with.”


Carrying out a energy audit will ensure that your lighting meets the standards of the EU’s Eco-design requirements


than electricity and if your business has a heat requirement, it offers much improved efficiency. However, “this is something that people get wrong more often than they get it right,” says Barker. If you install CHP and then make effi- ciencies in the way you operate, you reduce the amount of energy you need and thus the efficien- cy of the CHP plant. “It is a good example of why it is important to optimise your processes first. Process improvements can be as effective as individual technology updates.” That is why


The energy consultants start by establishing benchmarks for existing operations and identify- ing energy flows, water flows and specific regu- latory issues that apply. This is the basis for a long-term programme of continuous improve-


ment. While many businesses start by aiming to meet their mandatory obligations, there are often further opportunities to reduce costs. There are also a number of innovative ways to finance efficiency measures, ranging from vendor financing from companies such as Siemens Financial Services that is paid for by the energy savings made, to enhanced capital allowances and interest free loans from the Carbon Trust (for the private sector) and previously Salix (for the public sector).


Sustainable Business | Green works | September 2010 | 05


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